Isfahan Province
Isfahan province transliterated as Esfahan, Isfahan, or Isphahan, is one of the thirty-one provinces of Iran. It is located in the center of the country in Iran's Region 2, its secretariat is located in the city of Isfahan. The Isfahan province covers an area of 107,027 square km and is situated in the center of Iran. To its north, stand the Markazi Province and the provinces of Qom and Semnan. To its south, it is bordered by the provinces of Fars, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province. Aminabad is the most southern city of Isfahan province just 2 km north of the border. To the east, it is bordered by the province of Yazd. To the west, it is bordered by the province of Lurestan and to the southwest by the province of Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiyari; the city of Isfahan is the provincial capital. According to the census in the year 2006, the population of the province was 4,559,256 of which 83.3 percent were urban residents and 16.7 percent resided in the rural areas. The literacy rate was 88.65 percent.
In 2011 population of Isfahan grew up to 4,879,312. The province experiences a moderate and dry climate on the whole, ranging between 40.6 °C and 10.6 °C on a cold day in the winter season. The average annual temperature has been recorded as 16.7 °C and the annual rainfall on an average has been reported as 116.9 mm. The city of Sepahan however experiences an excellent climate, with four distinct seasons. With an elevation of 4,040 metres, the Shahankuh is the highest peak in Isfahan Province; this mountain is located about 20 kilometres southwest of the city of Fereydunshahr in the western part of Isfahan Province. Isfahan province consists of 52 rivers, they are small and temporary, with the exception of the Zāyanderud, which totals 405 km in length a basin area of 27,100 km2. Historians have recorded Espahan, Sepahan or Isfahan as a defense and military base; the security and protection of the increasing castles and fortifications, would provide the protection of residents nearby, therefore leading to the growth of large settlements nearby.
These historical castles were Atashgah, Tabarok, Kohan Dej, Gard Dej. The oldest of these is Ghal'eh Sefeed and the grounds at Tamijan from prehistoric times; the historic village of Abyaneh, a nationwide attraction has Sassanid ruins and fire temples among other historical relics. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Isfahan province enjoyed high standards of prosperity as it became the capital of Safavid Persia. While the city of Sepahan was their seat of monarchy, Kashan was their place of vacation and leisure. Isfahan province encompasses various sects today; the majority of the people in the province are Persian speakers, but Bakhtiari Lurs, Armenians and Persian Jews reside in the province. The official language of the province is Persian, though different ethnic groups and tribes abide by their own language such as Judeo-Persian, Georgian, Qashqai Turkic or Bakhtiari Lurish. Isfahan province is noted for its reputed personalities such as writers and other eminent figures who have been born and brought up or have lived in this territory.
Isfahan University of Technology Isfahan University Isfahan University of Medical Sciences Kashan University of Medical Sciences Isfahan University of Art Malek-Ashtar University of Technology University of Kashan Several well-known Islamic Azad University campuses in Iran are located in the province: Islamic Azad University of Falavarjan Islamic Azad University of Meymeh Islamic Azad University of Kashan Islamic Azad University of Majlesi Islamic Azad University of Shahreza Islamic Azad University of Najafabad Islamic Azad University of Khomeynishahr Islamic Azad University of Isfahan Islamic Azad University of Khorasgan Georgians in Iran History of Iran List of the historical structures in the Isfahan province Albert Houtum-Schindler. "Province of Isfahan". Eastern Persian Irak. London: J. Murray and Royal Geographical Society. Pp. 119+ – via HathiTrust. Muliani, S; the Georgians’ position in the Iranian history and civilization, Sepahan: Yekta Rahimi, M. M; the Georgians of Iran. The report of this exhibition is available in the web site of the Iranian Cultural Heritage News agency.
Saakashvili visited Fereydunshahr and put flowers on the graves of the Iranian Georgian martyrs' graves, showing respect towards this community Official website Province of Esfahan on Iran Chamber Society Esfahan Travel Attractions Isfahan Cultural Heritage Organization Isfahan Province Department of Education Isfahan information and pictures IsfahanEast.com Naein News
Europe
Europe is a continent located in the Northern Hemisphere and in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the south, it comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Since around 1850, Europe is most considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas and the waterways of the Turkish Straits. Although the term "continent" implies physical geography, the land border is somewhat arbitrary and has been redefined several times since its first conception in classical antiquity; the division of Eurasia into two continents reflects East-West cultural and ethnic differences which vary on a spectrum rather than with a sharp dividing line. The geographic border does not follow political boundaries, with Turkey and Kazakhstan being transcontinental countries. A strict application of the Caucasus Mountains boundary places two comparatively small countries and Georgia, in both continents.
Europe covers 2 % of the Earth's surface. Politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a total population of about 741 million as of 2016; the European climate is affected by warm Atlantic currents that temper winters and summers on much of the continent at latitudes along which the climate in Asia and North America is severe. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast. Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization; the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD and the subsequent Migration Period marked the end of ancient history and the beginning of the Middle Ages. Renaissance humanism, exploration and science led to the modern era. Since the Age of Discovery started by Portugal and Spain, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at various times the Americas all of Africa and Oceania and the majority of Asia.
The Age of Enlightenment, the subsequent French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars shaped the continent culturally and economically from the end of the 17th century until the first half of the 19th century. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to radical economic and social change in Western Europe and the wider world. Both world wars took place for the most part in Europe, contributing to a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the Soviet Union and the United States took prominence. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the West and the Warsaw Pact in the East, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1949 the Council of Europe was founded, following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill, with the idea of unifying Europe to achieve common goals, it includes all European states except for Belarus and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, a separate political entity that lies between a confederation and a federation.
The EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The currency of most countries of the European Union, the euro, is the most used among Europeans. In classical Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess; the word Europe is derived from her name. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, "wide, broad" and ὤψ "eye, countenance", hence their composite Eurṓpē would mean "wide-gazing" or "broad of aspect". Broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. There have been attempts to connect Eurṓpē to a Semitic term for "west", this being either Akkadian erebu meaning "to go down, set" or Phoenician'ereb "evening, west", at the origin of Arabic Maghreb and Hebrew ma'arav. Michael A. Barry, professor in Princeton University's Near Eastern Studies Department, finds the mention of the word Ereb on an Assyrian stele with the meaning of "night, sunset", in opposition to Asu " sunrise", i.e. Asia.
The same naming motive according to "cartographic convention" appears in Greek Ἀνατολή. Martin Litchfield West stated that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and any form of the Semitic word is poor." Next to these hypotheses there is a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning "darkness", which produced Greek Erebus. Most major world languages use words derived from Europa to refer to the continent. Chinese, for example, uses the word Ōuzhōu. In some Turkic languages the Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa; the prevalent definition of Europe as a geographical term has been in use since the mid-19th century. Europe is taken to be bounded by large bodies of water
Kashan
Kashan is a city in Isfahan province, Iran. At the 2017 census, its population was 396,987 in 90,828 families; the etymology of the city name comes from the Kasian, the original inhabitants of the city, whose remains are found at Tapeh Sialk dating back 9,000 years. Between the 12th and the 14th centuries Kashan was an important centre for the production of high quality pottery and tiles. In modern Persian, the word for a tile comes from the name of the town. Kashan is divided into two parts and desert. In the west side, Kashan is cited in the neighbourhood of two of highest peaks of Karkas chain, Mount Gargash to the southwest of Kashan and Mount Ardehaal in the west of Kashan known as "Damavand of Kashan" and the highest peak of Ardehaal mountains. In the east side of the city Kashan opens up to the central desert of Iran which the city is famous for. Kashan is known for Maranjab Desert and Caravanserai located near the namak lake. Today Maranjab and the surrounding Shifting Sands is a popular destination at the weekends.
On August 9, 2007 Iran placed the Historical Axis of Fin, Kashan on its Tentative List for possible future nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The exact definition of what locations within Kashan proper might be nominated was not made clear. In 2012 Iran nominated the Fin Garden separately for inscription by UNESCO as a part of its Persian Gardens World Heritage Site. Despite this the "Historical-Cultural Axis of Fin, Kashan" remains in full on Iran's Tentative List Archeological discoveries in the Sialk Hillocks which lie 4 km west of Kashan reveal that this region was one of the primary centers of civilization in pre-historic ages. Hence, Kashan dates back to the Elamite period of Iran; the Sialk ziggurat still stands today in the suburbs of Kashan after 7,000 years. The artifacts uncovered at Sialk Mahan Pasha reside in the Louvre in Paris and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, Iran's National Museum. By some accounts, although not all, Kashan was the origin of the three wise men who followed the star that guided them to Bethlehem to witness the nativity of Jesus, as recounted in the Bible.
Whatever the historical validity of this story, the attribution of Kashan as their original home testifies to the city's prestige at the time the story was set down. Abu-Lu'lu'ah/Pirouz Nahāvandi, the Persian soldier, enslaved by the Islamic conquerors and assassinated the caliph Umar al-Khattab in AH 23 fled to Kashan after the assassination, his tomb is one of Kashan's conspicuous landmarks. Sultan Malik Shah I of the Seljuk dynasty ordered the building of a fortress in the middle of Kashan in the 11th century; the fortress walls, called Ghal'eh Jalali still stand today in central Kashan. Kashan was a leisure vacation spot for Safavi Kings. Bagh-e Fin is one of the most famous gardens of Iran; this beautiful garden with its pool and orchards was designed for Shah Abbas I as a classical Persian vision of paradise. The original Safavid buildings have been replaced and rebuilt by the Qajar dynasty although the layout of trees and marble basins is close to the original; the garden itself however, was first founded 7000 years ago alongside the Cheshmeh-ye-Soleiman.
The garden is notorious as the site of the murder of Mirza Taghi Khan known as Amir Kabir, chancellor of Nasser-al-Din Shah, Iran's king in 1852. The earthquake of 1778 leveled the city of Kashan and all the edifices of Shah Abbas Safavi, leaving 8000 casualties, but the city started afresh and has today become a focal tourist attraction via the numerous large houses from the 18th and 19th centuries, illustrating the finest examples of Qajari aesthetics. Kashan's architectural sights include: 40 Dokhtaran Fortress Abbāsi House Attarha House Al-e Yaseen House Agha Bozorg Mosque Āmeri House Bazaar of Kashan Boroujerdi House Fin Garden Fin Bathroom Ghal'eh jalali Jalali Castle Jameh Mosque of Kashan Manouchehris House Menar tower Meydan Mosque Piruz Nahavandi Shrine Sultan Amir Ahmad Bathhouse Tabātabāei House Tabriziha Mosque Tepe Sialk Timcheh Amin-o-dowleh Although there are many sites in Kashan of potential interest to tourists, the city remains undeveloped in this sector, with fewer than a thousand foreign tourists per year.
Notable towns around Kashan are Abyaneh, which attract tourists all year around. The nearby town of Niasar features a man-made fireplace of historical interest. Kashan is internationally famous for manufacturing carpets and other textiles. Today, Kashan houses most of Iran's mechanized carpet-weaving factories, has an active marble and copper mining industry. Kashan and suburbs have a population of 400,000. There are more than 10,000 students studying in various fields at universities of Kashan. Colleges and universities in Kashan include: Kashan University of Medical Sciences Islamic Azad University of Kashan University of Kashan Road 71 Freeway 7, located near the cityKashan is connected via freeways to Isfahan and Natanz to the South, Qom, an hour drive away to the north. Kashan railway station is along the main north-south railways of Iran. Kashan Airport reopened on 2 June 2016 after twenty years hiatus with an ATA Airlines flight from Mashhad International Airport; the airport aims to launch flights to Kish Island and Qehshm Island in Iran and Najaf in Iraq Sarwar Kashani, Syed Sarwar Kashani David Alliance, Ba
Persian carpet
A Persian carpet or Persian rug known as Iranian carpet, is a heavy textile made for a wide variety of utilitarian and symbolic purposes and produced in Iran, for home use, local sale, export. Carpet weaving is an essential part of Iranian art. Within the group of Oriental rugs produced by the countries of the so-called "rug belt", the Persian carpet stands out by the variety and elaborateness of its manifold designs. Persian carpets and rugs of various types were woven in parallel by nomadic tribes, in village and town workshops, by royal court manufactories alike; as such, they represent different, simultaneous lines of tradition, reflect the history of Iran and its various peoples. The carpets woven in the Safavid court manufactories of Isfahan during the sixteenth century are famous for their elaborate colours and artistical design, are treasured in museums and private collections all over the world today, their patterns and designs have set an artistic tradition for court manufactories, kept alive during the entire duration of the Persian Empire up to the last royal dynasty of Iran.
Carpets woven in towns and regional centers like Tabriz, Mashhad, Isfahan and Qom are characterized by their specific weaving techniques and use of high-quality materials and patterns. Town manufactories like those of Tabriz have played an important historical role in reviving the tradition of carpet weaving after periods of decline. Rugs woven by the villages and various tribes of Iran are distinguished by their fine wool and elaborate colours, specific, traditional patterns. Nomadic and small village weavers produce rugs with bolder and sometimes more coarse designs, which are considered as the most authentic and traditional rugs of Persia, as opposed to the artistic, pre-planned designs of the larger workplaces. Gabbeh rugs are the best-known type of carpet from this line of tradition; the art and craft of carpet weaving has gone through periods of decline during times of political unrest, or under the influence of commercial demands. It suffered from the introduction of synthetic dyes during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Carpet weaving still plays a major part in the economy of modern Iran. Modern production is characterized by the revival of traditional dyeing with natural dyes, the reintroduction of traditional tribal patterns, but by the invention of modern and innovative designs, woven in the centuries-old technique. Hand-woven Persian carpets and rugs have been regarded as objects of high artistic and utilitarian value and prestige since the first time they were mentioned by ancient Greek writers. Although the term "Persian carpet" most refers to pile-woven textiles, flat-woven carpets and rugs like Kilim and embroidered tissues like Suzani are part of the rich and manifold tradition of Persian carpet weaving. In 2010, the "traditional skills of carpet weaving" in Fars Province and Kashan were inscribed to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists; the beginning of carpet weaving remains unknown, as carpets are subject to use and destruction by insects and rodents. Woven rugs developed from earlier floor coverings, made of felt, or a technique known as "flat weaving".
Flat-woven rugs are made by interweaving the warp and weft strands of the weave to produce a flat surface with no pile. The technique of weaving carpets further developed into a technique known as loop weaving. Loop weaving is done by pulling the weft strings over a gauge rod, creating loops of thread facing the weaver; the rod is either removed, leaving the loops closed, or the loops are cut over the protecting rod, resulting in a rug similar to a genuine pile rug. Hand-woven pile rugs are produced by knotting strings of thread individually into the warps, cutting the thread after each single knot; the Pazyryk carpet was excavated in 1949 from the grave of a Scythian nobleman in the Pazyryk Valley of the Altai Mountains in Siberia. Radiocarbon testing indicated that the Pazyryk carpet was woven in the 5th century BC; this carpet is 183 by 200 centimetres and has 36 symmetrical knots per cm². The advanced technique used in the Pazyryk carpet indicates a long history of evolution and experience in weaving.
It is considered the oldest known carpet in the world. Its central field is a deep red color and it has two animal frieze borders proceeding in opposite directions accompanied by guard stripes; the inner main border depicts a procession of deer, the outer men on horses, men leading horses. The horse saddlecloths are woven in different designs; the inner field contains 4 x 6 identical square frames arranged in rows on a red ground, each filled by identical, star shaped ornaments made up by centrally overlapping x- and cross-shaped patterns. The design of the carpet shows the basic arrangement of what was to become the standard oriental carpet design: A field with repeating patterns, framed by a main border in elaborate design, several secondary borders; the discoverer of the Pazyryk carpet, Sergei Rudenko, assumed it to be a product of the contemporary Achaemenids. Whether it was produced in the region where it was found, or is a product of Achaemenid manufacture, remains subject to debate, its fine weaving and elaborate pictorial design hint at an advanced state of the art of carpet weaving at the time of its production.
There are documentary records of carpets being used by the ancient Greeks. Homer, assumed to have lived around 850 BC, writes in Ilias XVII,350 that the body of Patroklos is covered with a "splendid carpet". In Odyssey Book VII and X "carpets" are mentioned. P
Pakistan
Pakistan the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the world’s sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 212,742,631 people. In area, it is the 33rd-largest country. Pakistan has a 1,046-kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest, China in the far northeast, it is separated narrowly from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor in the northwest, shares a maritime border with Oman. The territory that now constitutes Pakistan was the site of several ancient cultures and intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent; the ancient history involves the Neolithic site of Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, was home to kingdoms ruled by people of different faiths and cultures, including Hindus, Indo-Greeks, Turco-Mongols and Sikhs. The area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Alexander III of Macedon, the Seleucid Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, the Gupta Empire, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Delhi Sultanate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Afghan Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and, most the British Empire.
Pakistan is the only country to have been created in the name of Islam. It is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with a diverse geography and wildlife. A dominion, Pakistan adopted a constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic. An ethnic civil war and Indian military intervention in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh. In 1973, Pakistan adopted a new constitution which stipulated that all laws are to conform to the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Quran and Sunnah. A regional and middle power, Pakistan has the sixth-largest standing armed forces in the world and is a nuclear power as well as a declared nuclear-weapons state, the second in South Asia and the only nation in the Muslim world to have that status. Pakistan has a semi-industrialised economy with a well-integrated agriculture sector and a growing services sector, it is ranked among the emerging and growth-leading economies of the world, is backed by one of the world's largest and fastest-growing middle class.
Pakistan's political history since independence has been characterized by periods of military rule, political instability and conflicts with India. The country continues to face challenging problems, including overpopulation, poverty and corruption. Pakistan is a member of the UN, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the OIC, the Commonwealth of Nations, the SAARC and the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition; the name Pakistan means "land of the pure" in Urdu and Persian. It alludes to the word pāk meaning pure in Pashto; the suffix ـستان is a Persian word meaning the place of, recalls the synonymous Sanskrit word sthāna स्थान. The name of the country was coined in 1933 as Pakstan by Choudhry Rahmat Ali, a Pakistan Movement activist, who published it in his pamphlet Now or Never, using it as an acronym referring to the names of the five northern regions of British India: Punjab, Kashmir and Baluchistan; the letter i was incorporated to ease pronunciation. Some of the earliest ancient human civilisations in South Asia originated from areas encompassing present-day Pakistan.
The earliest known inhabitants in the region were Soanian during the Lower Paleolithic, of whom stone tools have been found in the Soan Valley of Punjab. The Indus region, which covers most of present day Pakistan, was the site of several successive ancient cultures including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro; the Vedic period was characterised by an Indo-Aryan culture. Multan was an important Hindu pilgrimage centre; the Vedic civilisation flourished in the ancient Gandhāran city of Takṣaśilā, now Taxila in the Punjab, founded around 1000 BCE. Successive ancient empires and kingdoms ruled the region: the Persian Achaemenid Empire, Alexander the Great's empire in 326 BCE and the Maurya Empire, founded by Chandragupta Maurya and extended by Ashoka the Great, until 185 BCE; the Indo-Greek Kingdom founded by Demetrius of Bactria included Gandhara and Punjab and reached its greatest extent under Menander, prospering the Greco-Buddhist culture in the region.
Taxila had one of the earliest universities and centres of higher education in the world, established during the late Vedic period in 6th century BCE. The school consisted of several monasteries without large dormitories or lecture halls where the religious instruction was provided on an individualistic basis; the ancient university was documented by the invading forces of Alexander the Great, "the like of which had not been seen in Greece," and was recorded by Chinese pilgrims in the 4th or 5th century CE. At its zenith, the Rai Dynasty of Sindh ruled the surrounding territories; the Pala Dynasty was the last Buddhist empire, under Dharmapala and Devapala, stretched across South Asia from what is now Bangladesh through Northern India to Pakistan. The Arab conqueror Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh in 711 CE; the Pakistan government's official chronol
Aran o Bidgol
Aran o Bidgol is a city and capital of Aran va Bidgol County, Isfahan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 55,651, in 15,556 families, it is one of the ancient desert cities of the province, close to Kashan. As suggested by its name, the city is an amalgam of two separate settlements: Aran and Bidgol; the area consisted of two distinct and separate villages named “Aran” and “Bidgol”. Each village had its own customs, social communications, dialect, it was situated near the Silk Road and many caravans passed it on their way from Europe to the Orient. About 40 years ago, the wall of separation collapsed and these two small towns unified. We can name the Jandaghian family as one of the most famous ones in this city. Jandaghians have a representative in the Ministry of interiors; the town is surrounded by desert from the north and east, thus it has a typical climate of hot and dry in summer and dry in winter, little rainfall during the year. These conditions make agriculture difficult.
Carpet making is the main industrial product of the town, the carpets are exported to Afghanistan, Pakistan and other neighboring countries. Natural gas and oil resources have been discovered near the city. Deserts and salt lakes tours Camel riding in desert Driving on sand dunes Maranjab caravansari Si zan castle Holy shrines and religious mausoleums. Iran Kashan Isfahan Province Iranian history ĀRĀN, Encyclopædia Iranica http://www.persiadesert.com
Namak Lake
Namak Lake is a salt lake in Iran. It is located 100 km east of the City of Qom and 60 km of Kashan at an elevation of 790 metres above sea level; the lake is a remnant of the Paratethys sea, which started to dry from the Pleistocene epoch, leaving Lake Urmia and the Caspian Sea and other bodies of water. The lake has a surface area of about 1,800 square kilometres or 690 square miles, but most of this is dry. Water only covers 1 square kilometre or 0.4 square miles. The lake only reaches a depth between 45 centimetres to 1 metre; the most important water supply is the river Qom
Iran
